Veterans Affairs (VA) police officers next week will begin to wear body cameras and use dashboard cameras on their vehicles, with all of the roughly 4,670 officers required to do so by the end of 2023, the VA Department announced Friday.
The requirement will first go into effect June 20 for those who serve at department medical and veteran centers in the VA’s Desert Pacific Healthcare Network, which includes facilities in Southern California, New Mexico and Arizona.
VA leaders said the initiative is meant to provide transparency in their officers’ interactions with the public.
“Using dashcams and bodycams make our facilities even safer – building trust in our great police force while increasing transparency and promoting de-escalation,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement.
Lawmakers late last year aimed to increase scrutiny and oversight at the VA by passing the initiative, which stipulates body cameras be worn by department officers. President Biden in May 2022 also gave an executive order that all federal officers and agents wear the cameras.
VA officers, who protect the department’s medical facilities, campuses, centers, offices and cemeteries, in recent years have been involved in several violent incidents.
In January 2020, officers shot and killed a veteran seeking psychiatric treatment while armed with a knife. In Milwaukee at few months later, a man attempted to enter a VA hospital with a shotgun but was shot and killed by police.
The VA said its officers’ cameras will automatically record video and audio when an officer draws their firearm or activates the emergency lights in a police vehicle. Police will also manually turn on their body cameras for traffic stops, responding to calls for service, transporting those in custody, investigations and during enforcement encounters.
Department officials also said the VA has taken steps to ensure that the new policies do not “infringe upon the privacy of those we serve or VA employees,” and that footage from cameras “will only be used for police investigations and court proceedings,” or for other limited purposes allowed under federal law.
“Unless there is a clear and compelling need for a recording, no video will be recorded in locations where a reasonable expectation of personal privacy exists,” according to the VA statement.
The VA added that all its police and privacy officers are undergoing “extensive” training to prepare for the policy.